Are emergency water supplies safe? Fed and states can't tell for sure

Michael Hawthorne, Tribune reporter

It took years for Illinois officials to discover that southwest suburban Crestwood was pumping contaminated water to its residents, in part because the state took village officials at their word that nothing was wrong.

Such lax oversight is a problem in scores of communities throughout the nation, according to a new report from the U.S. Environmental Agency's inspector general that urged federal and state officials to conduct more rigorous inspections and adopt tighter reporting guidelines.

The report, prompted by a Tribune investigation, also found there is no way to determine if emergency water supplies that serve more than 58 million people are contaminated or being misused. Oversight is based on trust, rather than routine inspections, the inspector general concluded.

As a result, it's unclear if there are situations like Crestwood in other parts of the country. Investigators could find just two similar problems during the 1990s, one in Minnesota and the other in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

"We recognize this is an issue," Darrell Osterhoudt, regulatory affairs manager for the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators, said Monday. "Our members don't think there are other Crestwoods out there, but there's no systematic way to determine if that's really true."

A 2009 Tribune investigation revealed that Crestwood officials had secretly drawn water from a contaminated well for more than two decades, apparently to save money. The village kept piping polluted water to residents, even after Illinois regulators told Crestwood in the mid-1980s that cancer-causing chemicals had oozed into the well.

A lawsuit filed by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan accuses Crestwood officials of lying more than 120 times in official documents that claimed the village pumped only treated Lake Michigan water to its residents. Mayor Robert Stranczek; his father, former Mayor Chester Stranczek; and the village's former top water official also face a federal criminal investigation.

Federal law doesn't require the U.S. EPA or states to monitor emergency wells like the one in Crestwood. That means neither the federal agency nor the states know if other communities face health risks from the improper use of contaminated water supplies.

Nationwide, more than 6,700 water systems maintain emergency supplies, according to EPA records. New York has the most (788), followed by California (689), Texas (458), Minnesota (427) and Pennsylvania (339). There are 242 in Illinois.

In response to the Tribune's findings, Illinois appears to be ahead of other states in trying to fix the problem. Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation last year that requires more frequent monitoring, prompt disclosure of water contamination to consumers and tougher penalties for deceiving state officials.

The EPA inspector general recommends that other states enact similar laws.

"You would think public officials wouldn't want to pollute the same water that they and their friends and family are drinking," said Illinois EPA Director Doug Scott. "With the extra protections we've built into the system, we feel confident we can discourage something like Crestwood ever happening again."

Communities already undergo regular inspections of their primary drinking water supplies and must provide periodic records of testing for contaminants such as lead, mercury and toxic chemicals. Customers are supposed to be notified if treated drinking water violates any health standards.

But EPA officials acknowledge widespread problems with water reports submitted by the states. A 2006 review found that just 29 percent of monitoring and reporting violations had been entered into a federal database, which is intended to provide federal officials with a broad overview of water systems around the nation.

There is even less information available about emergency supplies like the one Crestwood tapped into for a portion of the village's drinking water.

"There is no common understanding of when and how emergency facilities may be used, especially with regard to drinking water," the inspector general's report concluded. "States rely on water systems to self-report when they use these emergency facilities."

The EPA said it is developing new strategies to tackle drinking water contamination, including an overhaul of monitoring and reporting programs.